Cary, get back to work! Or go change my tires!
As for the 5.5 thing... you can build an F18 in your back yard and as long as it measures in it's good to go. So, if the 5.5 measures then I don't see an issue with it. If I've missed a rule please point it out.
As for the crew weight and sail plan, yes that's an area of contention and depending on event the wiggle room will vary. If you got screwed and it was me I apoligise for that, if it wasn't me then I can't address it. I can tell you this, I've never sent anyone home that had a weight and sail plan issue. I gave them the stink eye, but they sailed. If you felt that a team should not have been on the water you could have protested and they would have been flicked.
If your talking about Mosley's non stock sails that never got measured... he was always allowed to sail and yes he got a boot in the nuts but he was allowed to sail.
If the regatta is nationals the rules will be followed to the letter of the law though, no wiggle room.
Jake, I'm coming this weekend to BWYD also known as the couples regatta. I will most likely not buoy race day one, in order to get ourselves accustomed to my new boat, but will race day 2. No need for a cruising course for me, I will most likely just
screw
around on the lake, and pick your brain <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />
By the way, I come to regattas because it's just too much fun and would not want to miss out... But honestly the support of my wife and her interest plays a HUGE roll, and if she was not interested in sailing, the regatta people, camping, racing and crewing it would not be such a given.
So getting the significant other interested and having something for them to do (if they are not crewing) is in my opinion important to cat sailing and regattas.
Man, this is out of hand, thrown under the bus again.
My sails came from an F18 certified sailmaker(Landenberger)
Dont put me in Cary's fight, he's talking about something else entirely different.
Bjorn, cant wait to see the new boat!
Nope, your Landenberger sails would have to be measured. We allowed sails that came stock with the boat to be 'certified' (this was a US thing) but not after market or third party sails. I'm pretty sure Traci told you that, she was a by the book kind of girl.
Dave, Im not going to argue about this on this site, but that aint how it happened.
Had Traci told me that, i would have felt pretty unwelcome at those regatta's though....
Did I mention I had an A Cat now?
I drove 3.5hrs to go to a day race which turned into a drifter about a month ago and the club kept announcing over the PA system that club members must prepurchase their tickets for the club member only dinner that night. Luckily us non members were able to buy a sausage sandwich before the 3.5hr drive home. When we organise our regattas we make sure there's cheap food and drink so that every one knows they're welcome and if we get blown out there's still a buzz around the club
regards
Ding:
Mosley doesn't own an F-18. He ain't in this discussion.
I been stewing on this for a while, The only real problem here is the preponderance of RULES.
I read the RRS cover to cover twice a year at least, Still learning them. Too damn Complicated to promote fun. . .
Ther are so many rules for so many situations, how can a new person EVER make sense of it all?
Lunatic Ravings edited for Content
Maybe a good Solution would be to Get Sammy and Valter in a locked room together somewhere, Just enough beer to make it friendly, and throw out every rule that can't be understood or just pisses someone off cause it's stupid or too damn complicated.
That would fix us.
Hey, how about this a deterrent to fun, random, recreational sailing:
Trying to get a rating for my F31. There is a
local
organization that provides these ratings. In order to get a rating I need my boat weight (not easy) and then have all my sails measured by a sailmaker - or competitor. Not worth it for one or two regattas a year. I guess it makes sense if you are serious about it, but I was going to get a rating to do one regatta. I think it would take a full day to take the sails off, either take it to a sailmaker (and how much do they charge?) or waste someone else's time, then put them back on.
yes... it suddenly occurred to me that you guys have to do this (I think) for a lot of the class events, but seems super painful to me.
Another thing that makes me not want to do regattas is the yelling that occurs at times. I crewed on a J29 for a year or so for fun, club level, races. The amount of screaming and yelling and name calling made me wonder why the hell anyone would voluntarily put themselves into that position.
And yes, there are so many rules (which there has to be I think) that I can't keep anything straight. I can sort of figure them out if I can think about it for a few minutes... but I chose to bail in on-the-water situations when I don't have the time to think about it and feel 100% certain I am in the right.
This board is turning into a bitch-fest...and I'm not talking about the posts.
AGREED, there need to be Rules otherwise we'd just have Sailing Anarchy(pun intended, couldn't resist)
My whole point with that rant was meant to point out how far out of scale we have gotten with rules that sometimes it overshadows the enjoyment with the complication of the competition.
For all us Serious Racers . . .
I bet we spend more time tuning and tweaking than just out on the water for a day's good time . . .
Wasn't that what made it all good in the first place?
On that Note, Jake's Right, this thread has taken a wrong turn,
I'm out of here.
What's up you bitches....
I'm a little late to this discussion, but I figure I'll put in my 2 cents.
I'll side with Todd about the unwelcome part... Everyone I know is willing to pitch in or offer advice to help a newbie. Even the rock stars are willing to jump in....I've seen Nigel step a mast for a neophyte and Smyth party hardy around the campfire. I'm sure all of us has tried to make newbies welcome.
Part of the problem has been that most of us old farts that have been around the sport for years have moved on to more performance boats.. Hence more expensive boats and it's decimated the entry-level fleets. With only performance type boats, it appears to a newbie that we are more elitist.
I sail a F18 and a H16... Being from Raleigh NC I'm also in the middle of 2 different groups of sailors. The SC/GA group is mostly made up of performance class boats and there are very few H16s at most events. The Virginia group still has a strong H16 fleet and the performance class is mostly limited to A Cats.
If I were a newbie showing up at a regatta on my beat up H16, I would not be as intimidated if there were several other H16s there.
We just need to do a better job of finding those persons with those boats and getting them to events. Most of these folks don't realize that these events... aka parties, aka learning opportunities exist.
The next time you see someone out on an old beater boat, take the time to tell them about the events coming up in your area and tell them about this website and your regional site with schedule.
I just want to add that if you need your bus or large truck to be made immobile ,Dave Mosley is the man boy for the job. He's the best tire chock I've ever seen. He usually volunteers for the job, and is great at it, because ,apparently he lives under a bus. I want my traps back.
Tawd
I think Mike Hill had the answer.
Mark, there are cat sailors in the RTP area. How about a local distance course run for fun? Low stress. Bring your own food. Just sail? Seems to be a few local cat sailors.
IMO, there are a number of questions that are getting mixed up on this thread. Get the questions right, the answers are easier. One is how to attract participants. The other is how to make a good regatta.
If there are too many
sea lawyers
who enjoy lots of rules just for a good argument, that's a separate problem. (That reminds me of the old saying: Never wrestle with a pig; you both get dirty and the pig likes it.) It's a separate problem from attracting new talent. And, if there is too much tight society, that's a another different problem. I can't think of any way to put a lot of beater boats on the same course as a bunch of A cats and make it fun...
How about working on increasing the size of the chase boat fleet to take out more spectators? (Bikini's?)
Increasing the number of spectators would add to the fun at the liars contest? (Saturday night)
But that is the premise of what you do at Spring Fever....
1 course, 4 starts and 12 classes.
I agree with your two questions though.
Obviously to attract participants... you can't have
unwelcome
. (or what ever you want this term to mean)
Geez, I don't know where some of you sail, but I've NEVER felt unwelcome.
In fact, last year I showed up at a one day regatta late and was planning on doing some rec.sailing when they practically forced me to enter the remaining races. Before I knew it my boat was being dragged down the beach by four guys, it was all I could do to just keep up! It was good fun and I actually beat some guys on points (which was good for some laughs at the bar!
This type experience is typical, and even in my mono days it would not have surprised me.
I don't take part in many races these days, which is a shame. OTOH, If someone from the club were to call me up I would have a hard time not signing up... Then again, I really am hard pressed for time and my work as a pastor and minister means I can almost never race on Sundays, which is when my club holds most of their races.
Dennis
We do need to do another Sweet 16 or simular format race at Lake Jordan.... (Trey we miss you in Raleigh.) Maybe with the lull in the regatta season over the summer, we can pull something together late July or early Aug.
I'll be glad to head something up... I know there will be discusion about Catapolza at the BWYD regatta this weekend. Maybe we can tie this in and make it Catapolza North. Sorry, I can't make BWYD, but fill me in if you want to include a second Catapolza RTP event.
Obviously you got your life priorities all wrong. Time to go agnostic!
<img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />
Mark, I'm in Graham and could help with something at Jordan or Falls etc. There is a FX1 in Burlington that would be interested, a Fox in High Point, Kyles 18 in Mebane, JD's 16 in Garner, you and Lloyd, and quite a few folks around that don't usually go racing. Get the NCSU crew involved and you've got a race. I have a motor boat that could be a chase boat. Let me know, e-mail is ncmbm@hotmail.com
Sounds like a great start... There is also Garland in Henderson, David Devon and Bill Crowell in Durham... James A in Fayetteville. We may also get some of the Wrightsville Beach boats there. There is good pool of boats in this area, we just need to get organized. Anyone interested.. please PM me with your name and email address.
Mark,
I'm definitely down to get something going in the area. I'll send you my e-mail when I get home from work. I'm sure some of the Wrightsville guys would come, they're just not as into the lake thing. Let's get it going, let me know if I can do anything to help out.
The Isotope fleet is also local to this area and I'd bet we could scare up a few boats. I'd love to come if I can fit it into my schedule. It's short notice, but you could piggyback on the Mayor's Cup (Lake Townsend - Greensboro) or Governor's Cup (Kerr Lake - Henderson) Regattas.
Regards,
Eric
Dennis
Dennis, as a non-believer I never got this.
He
says sunday is a day of rest, but not for
his
employees? Isnt that a paradox? When do YOU get to rest? On Monday? <img src="<>/wink.gif" alt="wink" title="wink" height="15" width="15" />
You coming to Texel? The only regatta where everyone is welcome and the last finisher gets a heroes welcome (seriously).
I do understand that some feel
unwelcome
at regattas.
There used to be a 50nm long distance race which in the beginning was a 50/50 spread between
slow
boats (Prindles, H16, Nacra 5.2/5.5, etc) and
fast
boats (F18s, N20s, Ts, etc).
One of the problems that arose was that due to the huge speed difference it was getting harder each time to guarantee the safety of all the competitors.
oh no....not here...that' political thread is bad enough!
One of the problems that arose was that due to the huge speed difference it was getting harder each time to guarantee the safety of all the competitors.
There is no way to guarantee the safety of any competitor. Are you sure that's what your meant to say?
And it's an F18 driver too... Yes the letter is being drafted now.
There is no way to guarantee the safety of any competitor. Are you sure that's what your meant to say?
Maybe
guarantee
wasn't the right word,
manage
would be more appropriate (not a native speaker, sorry).
Anyway, the wording doesn't really matter.
The point I was trying to make was that a field of 50 cats spread out over 20nm is a lot harder to oversee rescue-wise than one spread over maybe 3nm.
(I should probably mention that this race was held in the spring when the water is still quite cold and you really need RIBs at both ends of the fleet.
The closing speeds and
blind spots
from the spinnakers of modern cats is a serious danger. It is only a matter of time until that is demonstrated.
Somebody had to say it!
Yeah I knew what you meant... it's Friday and I was just busting your balls a bit.